Progress Thread Almost Stock Rebuild (89 GT)

[Stang337]

3.55 gears is what I have in my 89 Saleen, especially driving in SoCal traffic went it's on the road. After the sub frames, maybe look into other MM stuff, I see their caster/camber plates. I have their Strut tower brace, rear lower control arms and HD upper bushings, Needed their strut brace as I changed to the 93 cobra intake (ported and polished) larger TB, Mas Air Meter, 24# injectors and Walpro 255 FP and BBK CAI which is CARB cert for CA. Have other bolt on things as well, incase someone wanted to put it back to original. (1.7 roller rockers, CARB shorty headers, better mufflers) Runs and sounds good for what it is. Almost forgot, better stopping with Power Stop cross drilled rotors, pads and stainless braid brake lines!

 

[PJV9126]

How was the cross country trip with a blown apart car - or was it back together again?

How did the passenger side cowl (below the windshield) turn out? Any further rust down the framing for the door mounts?

Car was mostly together for the trip across the country. Although the hatch was only duct taped on, and the fenders had only a few bolts in. It didn't run great, only enough to start it and drive it on/off the trailer. I also transported the shell of another mustang I am working on at the same time. That one needed to be pushed up by a few people into the trailer.

I used Intercity Lines (https://intercitylines.com/) for both of these cars as well as getting our daily drivers across. The cost of their enclosed transport was quite a bit more (~$3000 v ~$1000-$1500) than an open carrier but worth it to keep them protected. Intercity also has some agreement with exclusive drivers and/or owns their trailers. Point being - they don't subcontract the transport out to a fly by a night operator. More cost but I felt better about moving these cars. No idea what costs are these days as it seemed their quotes fluctuated depending on fuel prices. Took about a week-ish to go from New England to CA.

Passenger cowl had rust as expected. I did an okay job repairing it. Basically tried to cut out all the rust, form new pieces, weld in, and repaint. Doesn't look the greatest as it's a weird area where there are a lot of complex shapes that overlap. Probably would have been better to find a clean car to cut a section out of but I think it's okay for now. Hidden at least which is good.

Door mount / A pillar had some as well but mostly surface, not a ton of rot. That was easier as it was mostly rectangular pieces that needed to be removed. Then I treated the area and plug welded in some new pieces.

 

[PJV9126]

3.55 gears is what I have in my 89 Saleen, especially driving in SoCal traffic went it's on the road. After the sub frames, maybe look into other MM stuff, I see their caster/camber plates. I have their Strut tower brace, rear lower control arms and HD upper bushings, Needed their strut brace as I changed to the 93 cobra intake (ported and polished) larger TB, Mas Air Meter, 24# injectors and Walpro 255 FP and BBK CAI which is CARB cert for CA. Have other bolt on things as well, incase someone wanted to put it back to original. (1.7 roller rockers, CARB shorty headers, better mufflers) Runs and sounds good for what it is. Almost forgot, better stopping with Power Stop cross drilled rotors, pads and stainless braid brake lines!

Looks nice! Even has the original underhood insulator. Wish mine was in as nice of shape.

I have 3.55 gears sitting on the shelf waiting to be installed. Also already did MM rear lower control arms. Have a set of their "stock" upper arms along with the rubber bushings which I will also do at some point when the gears are done.

 

[PJV9126]

Maybe not in Cali but here in the 'state of confusion' you park that mustang next to a tesla and the mustang will be the attention getter.
Old Skool kool trumps commuter blob.

It's always been a small car but to see a fox next to any "modern" car in 2026 is wild. So nice to drive though because it can just slot into any parking space.

 

[Stang337]

Looks nice! Even has the original underhood insulator. Wish mine was in as nice of shape.

I have 3.55 gears sitting on the shelf waiting to be installed. Also already did MM rear lower control arms. Have a set of their "stock" upper arms along with the rubber bushings which I will also do at some point when the gears are done.

Thx, wife calls it "The Shrine" I'm the original owner and doesn't get driven a lot, only a bit over 19k on the clock!. Lately my friends have talked me into going to a few car meet ups. People are like we haven't seen a Fox body like it for quite some time, especially a Saleen vert.

 

[PJV9126]

I'm in the process of prepping the car for a 1) alignment, 2) subframe connector install, and 3) rear gear change.

When I blew the car apart in ~2020 I installed a (reman) new edge steering rack, MM hybrid shaft, and reman power steering pump. Since getting the car back on the road this year I have noticed a shudder at low speed / RPM. Does not sound great at all and made me wince when driving at low speed / in parking lots. I bled the pump reservoir multiple times and also put a vacuum on it to try and get any air out. That made an improvement but did not fix it 100%. I decided that if I was getting the car aligned I should get it solved before that.

So I bought and just installed a new power steering pump (Lares 12338) and rack (Lares 24307). The pump is pretty straight forward but the rack is advertised as a fast (10:1 ratio / 2.5 turn) rack. If I had to guess the only difference between the one I bought (new edge version) and the fox version is the input shaft (triangular vs. splined). How these compare to the various new edge versions (SPR-ZM, etc) I don't really know. But after reading a bunch about the reman racks out there and hearing that it is possible that housings get mixed with various internals, I figured it couldn't hurt.

Suffice to say, the noise on the pump side is basically gone. As is the shudder. There is a hint at low RPM and with a lot of effort but I am hoping that another vacuum bleed will remove that. Have not gotten around to doing that yet though. Very happy with the install and won't be touching this system for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, I had to swap the inner tie rods since the new edge are a different thread / length. Hindsight 20/20 I would have gotten the MM fox solid shaft and gone with the Lares new fox rack. Oh well...

Only thing I have noticed since getting the car on the road is that it seems I may need another limiter - which is odd to me. I am running the LMR repro turbines with 225/60R15 tires and confirmed the rack already had 1x limiters installed. But in parking lots at low speeds and at full lock, I seem to be rubbing on something. Car is lowered but not significantly. Slight drop on the springs and also Bilstein all the way around.

 

[PJV9126]

Oh also replaced the speedo cable and got the new one lubed up. No more chirping from under the dash and nice to correct an issue (bouncing speedo) I have had since I bought the car in 2011.

 

[AeroCoupe]

What did you lube the speedo cable with? Should only use powdered graphite lubricant. Any kind of grease will eventually get thick and lock the cable up.

 

[PJV9126]

What did you lube the speedo cable with? Should only use powdered graphite lubricant. Any kind of grease will eventually get thick and lock the cable up.

Yeah I bought that from NPD (https://www.npdlink.com/product/spe...powdered-graphite-lubricant-021oz-tube/233444). I wasn't sure exactly how much / how to use so I pulled the inner core out and then dumped some out and rubbed it with my fingers into the core. Only did the lower 2/3 of the core as mentioned on here, didn't want any (other) speedo issues.

I wish the repro cable had a nicer sheathing like OEM but it should be fine.

 

[AeroCoupe]

Seems like the aftermarket’s ones do okay with the graphite.

 

[gkomo]

I have an abundance of the Ford OEM PS fluid if you need any.

 

[PJV9126]

I have an abundance of the Ford OEM PS fluid if you need any.

Appreciate the offer! I ended up going to Oreilly's and just buying their house brand Type F as Amazon was out of Valvoline. Not too many brands seem to be making Type F these days.

 

[PJV9126]

Bit more progress on the car:

1. Installed the FatFoxx TFI Relocation (423706R/ 100% Plug and Play) kit. Not cheap ($250) but it is truly plug and play and I had it installed in ~30 mins. Hopefully that helps the TFI from cooking and prevents any road tripping issues!
2. Paid to get the car aligned and have full length MM subframe's installed. The cost was as much as you would expect for a well known Socal shop these days. But man, the car feels great after getting the SFC's installed. Definitely tightened everything up and all the cliche adjectives you would expect totally apply. Wish I had this done years ago as I no longer wince when driving over potholes/cracks/etc.
3. Finally got the rear end redone. Also not cheap but paying cash always helps I had a Truetrac installed along with 3.55 gears and all new bearings. While that was all apart I had them do the U joints and also the axle bearings/seals. The shop let me know that the orignal axles were basically toast (pitted on the bearing surface) and gave me two options. I ended up going with the more expensive option of putting two brand new axles in. Figured I best do it once/right while it was all apart. I also put in a cheap aluminum chinese 8.8" cover as well. It has cap studs but I was more interested in the drain plug.
4. I am starting in on some sound deadening work - pulled the door panels and installed Kilmat in the outer skins and also on the frame that the door panel attaches to. I also installed some foam that LMR sells as sound deadener for the door panels (don't think that will do much) along with new vapor/moisture barriers. Lastly I regreased all the window parts and put new pins/bushings in the motors as the originals were completely destroyed. Getting those pins in was a PITA...not sure exactly how it was supposted to be done but I put a zip tie around the 3 pins and gear then used a socket to hammer it into the large gear *shrug*. Seemed to work and no "dead space" when pressing the up/down window button.
5. Replaced the dash speakers. This definitely cleaned up the sound a bit. I was also planning to replace the door speakers and tried out some coaxials but when I played it with the stock radio, it sounded not great. From what I read, you really need an aftermarket amp to get some power to those speakers...since I am sticking with the stock amp/radio I decided to pull them and keep the stock speakers in the doors.

Car is running great and is definitely more fun to drive! Improvements in several areas which feels great. More "power", better sound, slightly quieter ride, etc. The 3.55's give the car incredible midrange but not quite the tire roasting power I was envisioning. I am thinking the tune could use some work and with a bit more dialing in on the fueling (and a bunch more timing) maybe it will get me there. But even without that, the pull through 2nd/3rd are great and it has nice pull on the highway vs before (2.73's) it was sluggish. Car also feels like it's not working quite as hard - between the SFC's and gears I think I am more in the powerband and the suspension is doing it's job - which is great! Time to get some miles on it although it's looking like rain here in SD for the next week or so.

Have to replenish the funds but in the meantime I am also doing some mini projects - buying the correct spare tire hardware (J bolt / wingnut) to secure it to the trunk floor. I also found/bought a replacement connector for the underhood light as my original one was not in great shape. The terminal was all corroded and after poking it, the terminal ended up breaking off. I am sure I could have found the terminal but ended up seeing that Motorcraft sells the connector so just went that route - available on RockAuto but not cheap.

Longer term I am hoping for a dyno tune and then I think I am DONE for a bit. Maybe, just maybe if I get motivated I would like to get the seats out and get some Kilmat on the floor. But maybe for now I'll tell myself it won't do that much.

Couple pics since we all love them!

 

[PJV9126]

FatFoxx installs right on the core support. Nice neat installation.

Also picked up this sweet cassette carrier/briefcase(?). I grew up having some cassettes but am young enough that my first purchased music (with my own money) was all CD's. That being said my car still has (and will continue to have) the original radio and when I finally got it back on the road I told myself I would start getting some cassettes for it. I decided that some of the cassettes had to be period correct for the car, even if it was music I had not necessarily listened to before. Some were picked up in Ocean Beach and some were picked up at a big antique mall in Monterey, CA. The ones I felt were especially appropriate were:

• Black Crowes - Shake Your Money Maker / Southern Harmony
• Blues Traveler - Live from The Fall
• Midnight Oil - Diesel and Dust
• U2 - Joshua Tree
• Living Colour - Times Up
• Grateful Dead - In The Dark

All great music - have already listened to In The Dark probably 20x. For a studio Grateful Dead album it is fantastic.

 

[PJV9126]

Questions for the brain trust...

Any idea where the original headlights leak? I refinished a set of original ford lights (maybe to the car, can't recall) and also put some PPF film on them. Noticed recently that one has moisture inside it. Guessing it leaks between the two halves? Can it be sealed with a thin bead of clear RTV? Or maybe something like silicone bathroom caulking? Any better suggestions?

Have you proactively replaced your spare? Mine seems to be dated 119 which I believe is the 11th week of 1989 and I think is original. Rubber looks okay and it also holds air, but that doesn't count for much when going 30/40/50mph. As I start to drive the car more it has me thinking about reliability, etc. I am never out of cell range (yet) so doubt it's really needed but wondering if I should just replace it. Seems to be about $130ish for a new one + mounting cost. But at the same time I never really hear of anyone replacing their spare. Although a full size or can of fix a flat/pump is more common. Guessing the answer is that it won't hurt to replace it and will only save me time/money in the future.

 

[AeroCoupe]

The headlights can get moisture in them two ways. The seal on the light bulb or the two halves need to be resealed. I have seen multiple threads and YouTube videos on how to do this of which the most common is putting them in the oven for a few minutes and then gently prying them apart.

 

[AeroCoupe]

I just replaced the tires the 17” spares for both of my Foxes as have Cobra brakes. Just search your spare size and I would bet it’s still made.